The ex-director's lawyer says the suspect didn't take part in the brawl but tried to prevent it

Yuri Chabuyev (right)

MOSCOW, May 16./TASS/. The former director of Moscow’s Khovanskoye Cemetery, Yuri Chabuyev, took part in a mass brawl at the cemetery, the investigator said at a session of Moscow’s Presnensky court which considers a petition for the arrest of the suspect.

"According to eyewitnesses, Chabuyev was among the people participating in the brawl," she said. He is suspected of committing crimes under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code - "the murder of two or more persons by a group of persons under a preliminary conspiracy", "illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, or bearing of firearms, its basic parts, ammunition, explosives, or explosive devices and."

"[Yuri] Chabuyev has been questioned, he did not admit his guilt during the questioning," the investigator said.

Ex-director tried to prevent brawl

Yuri Chabuyev's lawyer claims that he did not take part in the mass brawl at the cemetery but tried to prevent it.

"Our defendant did not take part in the brawl. On the contrary, he tried to prevent it, reported to the police," the lawyer told a session of the Moscow Presnensky court that considers the petition for the arrest of the suspect.

According to Chabuyev, he is not direct manager of the cemetery which, he said, is managed by Sergei Manukyan. He said he knew about what was plotted at the cemetery, and informed on Friday the deputy director of the state-financed entity Ritual (city funeral service) and his first deputy Yuri Afanasenko, asking him to report to the police. "On May 14, I arrived at the cemetery personally and saw only five policemen there. I was at my work seat in the administration building," he said.

On Monday, the court arrested for two months two suspects in the mass brawl case - Alexander Bocharnikov and Vyacheslav Serov.

Three people were killed and more than 30 hospitalized in a mass brawl with shooting at the cemetery in which more than 200 people took part. According to the press service of the Russian interior ministry’s Moscow department, the conflict involved North Caucasus natives and cemetery employees of the Central Asian origin.